Hi Guys,
I want to start buying stock but I'm little bit confused from where to start. I'm a brand new investor and I'm looking for investment less than $1000. This is because i just dont want to jump into buying bigger chunks all at once. I wanna learn the buying/ selling process and the funds involved in between. Also i dont need any brokers in between(But i guess its needed). I been studying the market on my own for a year now. It's just that i was in school and my student debt didn't let me invest in anything. So, do you guys have any ideas from where i can buy/sell stocks for free. If not can you provide me the cheapest broker.
Thank you

I already lost $20 thousands in stock. I am stuck in stock.

http://sajha.com/sajha/html/index.cfm?threadid=107488&noofposts=203

You can open an account with any online brokerage firms. The link below gives a comprehensive comparison of the available options:
http://www.fool.com/how-to-invest/broker/

Open the account then do some research. Never trust any recommendation given without your due diligence; you will find those "recommendations" in Sajha, junk mails etc. Do your own research and know what you are getting into.

Stay away from penny stocks (anything below $1). Also, forget about option trading for now.

Kiddo thank you so much. I just opened up an account.

Corporate Bro, I have been in this stock game for a while and its good for the sake of knowledge you get about finance and stocks. It really makes your day interesting and exhilarating.

However, it also takes up a lot of your time during work hours. The market is open from 9:30 to 4 ET, and if you're buying and selling your own stocks you'll be checking them constantly. You don't want to invest small amounts like say $1000 dollars, because the brokerage charges you 5-8 dollars per trade (buy and sell), so even if you do make a gain, it will be diluted by the brokerage fees. So you'd want to make investments of about 4-5000 per stock.

However, if you buy a lot of stocks you'll be constantly checking your account to see if you went up or down. It will take a heavy toll on your work. Same thing happened to me, at one point I had 7 stocks worth 5-6 k each floating around in the market and I could not get any work done. I could only get work done after 4 when the markets had closed. When I did well I'd go out, get an excellent dinner and party and when I was down, I'd stay in my apartment all day and do nothing.

In short it is really stressful this stocks game. If you want a more stable return, you can do lending club, etf, annuities, life insurance, cd's etc. Your money will grow slowly and steadily. In stocks you can make a lot of money really fast, but you can also lose a lot of money thanks to Wall Street market manipulators and be left holding the bag of fleas.

My two cents.

looks like few months of 2015 gonna be real good in market..stay invested guys......

i have invested $80,000 at 36% interest. do the math of my interest per annum.
I invested $40000 last year and took out $40000 from credit card this year at 3% initial transaction charge and 0% apr for 18 month.

I already lost $20 thousands in stock. I am stuck in stock.

mno,

mno, are you lending to some individual borrower in Nepal on 36% interest per annum? Then, good luck to you bro. You really need it. Hope that while you are doing your math on the interest, the borrower does not swallow your principal amount. Coz these incidents are definitely not unheard of.

hey man i am a usa educated person. how you thought that i will give anyone a loan without any security or collateral. from the first 40k i already got my money back with interest. I have reinvested it again.

Open up an 401K account if your employer provides one or do an IRA (Tax free growth). Invest in target retirement index funds (Lot safer). You have not specified if you are investing for long term or short term. Always invest in long term good growth stocks and mutual funds, look at 10 years rate of return and remember long term is the key. Stock market always wins in the end so do not try to game it. DIVERSIFY, DIVERSIFY DIVERSIFY. Final advice, there is no short term get rich plan, it is always a scam, stay out of debt, get health insurance and enjoy life fella

I've seen a bunch of threads asking for stock investment. Well for starters it's not a get rich quick scheme. Now a lot of people above like Kiddo and Hakim saab have provided thougtful insights.
First and foremost thing from my viewpoint is that I don't believe in penny stocks. You may make a lot of money but you can lose just about the same. It's like gambling in my opinion.
Second thing like Hakim saab said, it takes a lot from your work time and eventually your career. Holding stocks is a risky business and you have to constantly watch the market and update yourself about the performance and fundamentals of the company you are investing or planning on investing. You'd need to know what's the right time to enter and exit. For that it requires a lot of effort and of course experience.
The best thing for you is start with hakim saabs advice and go with etf, mutual fund, etc. Once you study how it works, where these funds are investing their assets, and why they are doing that, you may get a better idea on creating your own portfolio. A well balanced portfolio will keep you out of trouble and make you money over the course of time. A lot of online broker tools give you the ability to analyze your portfolio for risks and you can adjust accordingly.
Bottomine. It's a high risk game. I have lost thousands just in a matter of few hours and you can imagine how stressful it may be. You need to have a strong heart and resilience to withstand such events and keep going forward learning your mistakes. You can make good money off of stocks, but it requires due diligence, patience and perseverance.
Don't think of it as a get rich quick scheme. It requires as much effort as any other profession.

Hello guys I like the thread so much that I went in and created an account just to give my input. I have been scrambling around trying to get into stock market for about 9 months now. In the process I have lost about 15 grand. Well that includes education and stuff like that and multiple trial and errors and stupid mistakes. Well you got to start somewhere. I am slowly getting my head above the water now :) There are few different types of traders/investors and trading styles. Day traders , Swing traders and Investors aka value traders ( Warren Buffet). I decided to go as a Day trader. As far as trading style goes there are people who use Technical analysis which is studying chart patterns, moving averages, breakouts .And there are some using Fundamental analysis which is study of company balance sheet, P/E ratio, earnings report and so on. I personally didn't like Fundamental analysis. It's totally personal preference on what kind of trader you want to be. You can combine both to get odds in your favor too.

I traded penny stocks/Micro cap for about six months.There is nothing wrong with the penny stocks.I had some good gains but again I gave it all back doing those rookie mistakes.No matter what you trade the foremost thing is that you need to educate yourself. There are various website that will teach you how to trade. I followed Tim Sykes for about 3 months and followed his trade.Now I am doing my own thing. Let's see how it goes.He has his DVD's for sale in his websites but I downloaded it online pirated version :) He also have a daily trade alerts and chat room that cost about $99/month. Also open paper trading account with TD Ameritrade its free that way you will have a chance to put in the knowledge that you gain and get a feel of it. Hope this helps !!!!!!

Now starting 2015 I will start trading Mid-Cap stocks. Will keep on posting my trade. Let's see how well I will do this year. Cheeeers guys happy trading :)